It's been a cold, snowy and expensive winter in Louisville this year and while spring has arrived, Old Man Winter isn't walking away yet..

Thursday's temperature peaked at 58 but the warm weather will be short lived, said National Weather Service meteorologist Ron Steve.

Normal temperatures for this time of year are highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s; next week highs will be in the 40s and lows in the 20s, he said.

"The way things are looking, we're going to close out March pretty cold," he said.

The entire state has had a rough time this winter — 40 school districts missed more than 20 days of school, the Transportation Cabinet spent more than $53 million treating roadways with 430,000 tons of salt, and the General Assembly has taken up legislation to address more than 2,700 hours of lost instructional days at schools statewide.

Jefferson County Public Schools had 11 snow days this winter, the most the district has taken since 1980. The last day of school has been moved to June 12 and the district has only one snow day left in reserve.

The Kentucky General Assembly has taken up legislation that would address the statewide snow day dilemma, but it has stalled as the House and Senate cannot agree on how to approach the situation. The House passed a bill that would allow districts to waive up to 10 makeup days for snow closures but the Senate's bill pushes for them to exhaust all other options, such as extending the school day, first.

In Indiana, Greater Clark County school officials have extended each school day between April 7 and May 9 by 45 minutes to avoid adding three extra days onto the end of the 2013-14 school year.

If there are no more snow days, the final Greater Clark student day will be June 6 instead of June 11.

The cold and snow created a nationwide salt shortage and caused the Transportation Cabinet to ration salt supplies, said spokeswoman Lisa Tolliver.

In 2013, the cabinet spent $42.4 million as state trucks put down more than 184,000 tons of salt. This year that number topped 430,000 tons, she said.

The official snowfall total this winter was 25.6 inches, Steve said. The average is 12.1 inches, he said, adding that last year Louisville only got 9.1 inches of snow.

But Louisville hasn't slipped out of Jack Frost's icy grip just yet. Another storm system is expected to hit Louisville Monday night and more snow is a real possibility, Steve said.

"There's still a lot of uncertainty, but I would say snow is not off the table," he said.

Another snowstorm would be a serious headache for Louisville Public Works, which has already blown through its $1.4 million snow removal budget.

Louisville Metro Public Works spent $2,286,973 on snow removal and used 37,000 tons of salt through February, spokesman Harold Adams said.

The snow and cold have damaged roads throughout the city, and crews began a "pothole blitz" this week to repair them, Mayor Greg Fischer said Monday.

Metro Public Works patched 8,726 potholes between Nov. 1 and Feb. 28. In the same period a year ago, crews filled 7,162 potholes.

Fischer said work crews will systematically go through the city's streets patching potholes until all roads are covered, a process that should continue into late April. He noted that they are the same crews that have led the city's snow-fighting effort, and praised them for their work.

Potholes are created by a combination of water that seeps through cracks caused by normal wear and tear in asphalt, repeated freezing and thawing temperatures, and the weight of traffic. Cold temperatures cause the water to freeze and expand, weakening the pavement.

The weight of traffic on the weakened pavement then breaks the asphalt, eventually leaving a hole that grows as more traffic goes over it.

As cold and snowy as this season has been, historically it is pretty unremarkable, meteorologist Steve said. The average temperature since the start of December was 33.4 degrees, which doesn't break into the top 30 coldest winters, he said. This winter's snowfall total isn't in the top 10.

"It's just been one of those atypically cold winters," he said. "Snow in April is hardly unheard of."

Reporter Mark Boxley can be reached at (502) 582-4241 or on Twitter at @Boxleyland. Reporter Patrick T. Sullivan can be reached at (502) 582-4335 or on Twitter by following @CJ_PSullivan.